Green

Would Your New House Look Good in High Heels?

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Image borrowed from blog.armchairbuilder.com

I’m not talking about stripper shoes!  I’m talking about truss construction.  This is something we’re seeing and recommending more in new construction.  Installing a truss with a raised heel detail allows for more insulation at the perimeter where often the insulation is compressed or absent due to the proximity of the interior ceiling to the roof deck.  The detail to the right shows how a standard truss is built.  As discussed here before, venting and insulation is important to shingle life and to prevent ice damming.

Image borrowed from Building America Solution Center

A high heeled or raised heel truss (see left) is created with the equivalent of an additional wall section separating the bottom chord and top chord of the truss at the exterior wall.  This allows full thickness insulation to extend out to the wall and complete the protection of the building envelope.  If care is used in selecting your roof slope and eave extensions, this is never noticed as your soffit can be installed to return at the same height as the interior ceiling making the construction look like a standard cantilever truss.

When you’re planning your new home or addition to your existing home, make sure and ask us about this and other “Green That Save Green” solutions.

Shipping Container Living Space

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Credit: Urban Space Management (CONTAINER CITY) Ltd.
Credit: Urban Space Management (CONTAINER CITY) Ltd.

Brent Martin and I have had several discussions about using shipping containers as living space.  Apparently someone beat us on the implementation.  London-based developers Urban Space Management used shipping containers to create Container City, a 22-unit modular building.  I read about it in the April issue of Multi-Family Executive.  You can read the entire article by Linsey Isaacs on their site here.  I also read an article recently where Ball State University was experimenting with the idea as housing in third world countries.  Another million dollar idea lost to quicker minds…

Honeywell Thermostat

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Last Thursday I went to a presentation put on by Honeywell and Mid-City Supply in Plymouth that discussed their latest advancements in programmable thermostats.  I would hesitate to say that this is their answer to the Nest thermostat I talked about previously (here), since Honeywell was actually doing this first, but I think Nest and its advances and popularity are pushing them to be more innovative.  They have reduced the size of their programmable stat, given it more color options and beefed up their internet connectivity.

The three main things that I think set the Honeywell system apart are as follows:

  1. They have a lot of module add-ons available. (Homeowner Accessory Flyer)   They can tie together multiple thermostats, zone sensors, duct sensors, humidity sensors and outdoor sensors within the HVAC realm.  In addition they are adding things like sump pump sensors which will make your thermostat more of a multi-function device.
  2. Their RedLINK system has its own wireless bandwidth that works in a 1/2 mile radius to tie the modules together.  The advantage of this is the entire system becomes just one device on your wireless internet router reducing the load when Dad is playing video poker, Mom is watching a Netflix movie and Junior is playing a multi-player online game.
  3. There is a commercial option for this system, partially allowed by the flexibility listed above.

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LED vs HID Wall Pack Fixture

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I generally feel that upgrading electrical fixtures and devices to the newer energy-saving devices is the easiest green energy to justify.  Great strides are being made in this area to the point that my average client can see savings with a short pay off time.  This is often something that shows gains with a one-to-one swap of new for existing fixtures.  Further gains can be achieved by designing around the new fixtures and adding energy-saving controls.

One of my supplier reps was in yesterday and shared the following analysis that he completed for one of his manufacturing clients who was considering upgrading their existing exterior wall pack lights from HID (High Intensity Discharge such as High Pressure Sodium or Metal Halide) to LED (Light Emitting Diode):

These are the wall pack security fixtures you see high on the wall around factories, warehouses or buildings with parking near their wall.

Fixture prices:

HID   TWH400MTB w/lamp     $218

LED   TWHLED 30C 50K             $450

At $0.08 energy rate, 10 hour/day, 365 days/year the energy savings is $102.79/year.

LED = In a ten year time frame you would spend $450 for the LED fixture and $305.80 for energy use.

HID = In a ten year time frame you would spend $218 for the HID fixture plus change the lamp four times and the ballast once.  2 hours labor times 4 times is 8 hours.  The cost for the four lamps and the one ballast is $124.

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Energy Saving ROI’s

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Nest Thermostat
$249 at Amazon

A couple of weeks ago I discussed the Nest Thermostat.  (See that article here.)  One of the questions I have when I see something like this is whether there is return on investment (ROI) or in the case of green technology, is it Green That Saves Green?

According to Remodeling Magazine a programmable thermostat has a payoff in 1-10 years depending on the thermostat installed and the situation in which it will be used.  I’ve included some bare bones excerpts here, but for the complete article, check out page 40 in the November 2012 issue of Remodeling Magazine here.

Programmable Thermostat – Materials: $50-$350, Labor: 1-3 hrs, Estimated ROI: <1yr – 10yr

Low Flow Faucets & Fixtures – Materials: $1-$500+, Labor: 15 min – 4 hrs, Estimated ROI: <1yr – 5yr

Tankless Water Heater – Materials: $1,500-$3.500, Labor: 4-8 hr, Estimated ROI: 5yr – 15yr

Air Sealing – Materials: $50-$6,000, Labor: 4-40 hrs, Estimated ROI: <1yr – 8yr

Insulation – Materials: $200-$10,000, Labor: 4-100 hrs, Estmated ROI: 5yr – 15yr

On Demand Circulation Pump – Materials: $50-$150, Labor: 4-6hrs, Estimated ROI: 1yr – 2yr+

* The labor estimates above do not include travel time.